F1 Fanatic

Ok so Ecclestone says that 20 races is the limit for F1, as next season we will have that unprecidented amount of races on the calendar. Ross Brawn also says its about the limit for a single engineer. Here is the 2011 calendar:

1. Bahrain GP – Bahrain International Circuit
2. Australian GP – Albert Park
3. Malaysian GP – Sepang
4. Chinese GP – Shanghai
5. Turkish GP – Istanbul Park
6. Spanish GP – Circuit de Catalunya
7. Monaco GP – Circuit de Monaco
8. Canadian GP – Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
9. European GP – Valencia Street Circuit
10.British GP – Silverstone
11.German GP – Nurburgring
12.Hungarian GP – Hungaroring
13.Belgian GP – Spa-Francochamps
14.Italian GP – Monza
15.Singapore GP – Marina Bay
16.Japanese GP – Suzuka
17.Korean GP – Korean International
18.Indian GP – Jaypee Group Circuit
19.Abu Dahbi – Yas Marina
20.Brazilian GP – Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace

However with the USA grand prix scheduled for 2012, a much talked about Rome grand prix and the possibility of Russia which 3 would you cut?

First off I think the “European GP” has very little going for it, there’s already a race in Spain and its a torrid circuit. I think the other personal favourites to face the chop are the chinese gp and the spanish gp. However spains a big market for racing so I reckon at least one spanish race is a safe bet.

Unfortunatly at this rate I see very little room for Spa on the calendar, the circuit lost a stupid amount of money hosting the latest race and I dont see the government stepping in.

Thoughts?

I don’t believe Ecclestone when he says 20 races is the maximum limit any more than when he said it about 16 races back in the nineties.

Here’s that article by the way:

2011 F1 calendar could be longest ever

Now superceded by:

2011 F1 calendar officially revealed with 20 races and season finale in Brazil

I wonder what he means – is it the workload? I don’t think it’s finance because with few exceptions (like going to Canada and back for one race) each race is profitable for the teams.

I think you’d need more back-to-backs. The problem with that is places like Singapore and Malaysia, and Bahrain and Abu Dhabi would be competing in the same market and would take money off of each other. An Australia/Malaysia BTB would be feasible of course, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like a Middle East one is going to happen.

Some of those GP’s aren’t as safe as you might think. Australia has a good chance of being dropped soon, I wouldn’t be surprised if the same applied to brazil japan. If the money isn’t there, it’s very real that they could be dropped. Bernie doesnt care about the fans in those countrys, just his money

Prisoner Monkeys, I had the same idea about keeping a “core” set of GP’s, as well as rotating the rest of them. Perhaps with Suzuka, Monza, Silverstone, Brazil, and Australia being held permenantly as “heritage” races, GPs like Germany, US, Spa, Spain, and Malaysia as international races to validate it being called a WORLD Championship, and the rest filled with Istanbul, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi(among others). Seriously doubt it would ever happen, but I think it would work, as well as being flexible enough to allow races to be replaced with newer ones every couple of years.